Subject asks it all, really.
Snooker is on the TV at the moment, and for many of the final 32 - the best in the world - their average prize money earnings isn’t that much. I know sponsorship will add a lot, but I’m guessing that the commentators often earn more. And a sufficiently interesting TV commentator might find opportunities to present other programs.
In snooker the top players are (pounds sterling) multi-millionaires just from their prize-money earnings alone and sponsorship adds a fair whack on top of that. Of course the best soccer player in the World could earn in one season what the best snooker player in the World would expect to earn over the course of their career.
I’d guess Hazel Irvine is probably on a yearly salary that beats most of the lesser players at the World Snooker Championship’s typical yearly earnings. Though she is the presenter of the World Snooker Championship rather than a commentator and her salary would be for presenting a BBC-televised sporting events throughout the year.
I’m not so sure about that. The top very few, yes, but averaged over their careers, some of these people are getting less than $50K a year prize money. And remember they have to fly all around the world, pay trainers, accommodation, etc.
No doubt.
That’s why I mentioned the commentators rather than her.
The NFL seems to produce a small percentage of commentators that probably make more $ in TV and radio than when they actually played the game. Im not sure about this, but I would venture that Trent Dilfer, Sean Salisbury, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Dan Marino, and Ron Jaworski will make more money from their broadcasting careers than from their NFL careers; to be fair, a few of those names are a bit old-time and made a lot less in their day than NFL players do today.
Also, Mike Ditka, John Madden and Pat Summerall would fall into this category, I would imagine.
ETA: To my knowledge, Madden was only a coach. I don’t recall him actually being a player off the top of my head.
He was drafted by the Eagles, but a training camp injury ended his playing career. I assume, since he was hurt, that he got paid for that season (and in 1958 for a 21st round draft pick that would have been a pittance), but he never actually played in pro football.
I know technically not games (and technically not commentators either) - but all the reality singing, dancing and cooking competition shows (like the Voice) are incredible money-spinners and publicity machines for the judges rather than any of the competitors.
Do you intend to limit the question to pro sports? If not, I would think a lot of Olympic athletes and college football (US) and basketball players probably take home less than the commentators.
Sure, but that’s almost by definition - there are lots of amateur sports that get televised occasionally, and (probably) no amateur TV commentators, at least on network TV.
Little League World Series?
Absolutely. Over here, amateurs cannot get paid (more or less).
I’d guess that some of the commentators on pro figure skating do pretty well, and even better than most of the competitors.